hey all: I just bought an 04 turbo cab with a 700hp built engine and all the good stuff (garret turbos, tial external wastegates, AP hoses, etc. stage three unsprung clutch, upgraded intercooler and exhaust and cross competition coil overs. the car also has a full gt2 body kit (don't know the brand).
it's a three california owner car sold to carmax of ca. who wholesaled it to a nevada dealer from whom I bought it. It has ca. title and according to carfax was smogged in November, by the dealer I suppose.
but it needs a new smog because it's more than 90 days and it doesn't even show up as smogged on the DMV site.
I took it to an indy porsche shop that had worked on my 928 and for grins he hooked up a code reader and it only showed one of the 6 smog related systems as complete, the other 5 were not complete or not there. he says that under stricter ca. smog testing all codes must be complete.
he said the answer is to detune it to original for the test then retune afterwards. he suggested that his product GAIC would eliminate the need for detuning because that tune doesn't turn off the codes.

my preference would be not to spend big bucks to have another tune.
Problem is that I don't know the past owners and I have no paperwork on the build or tune. One member said it seemed like vivid racing set up, but they don't work off of vins. the suggested a tuner who they used around when I think the build was completed.

my county, like most ca counties require smog every two years. don't have access to an address in a county which doesn't require it.

my porsche guys thinks many tuners don't keep records via vin and that's the only identifying info I have.

any options other than paying for another tune?

btw: monster car, most fun I've ever had on 4 wheels. I've been afraid to punch it all the way to the floor and haven't explored the turning capacity yet, but it's a pretty amazing car and I think the best bang for the buck in high performance/supercar level.


rick jaffe

 

pictures of the beast

 

Nice..
I would look into putting another air feed on the other side of your lid above the air box since its cut out on the box but you have no fresh/cool feeding into it there,,only hot air from the engine compartment..
Enjoy..

 

Looks like you have a tune with certain things turned OFF... but if you have a catless exhaust this will always be a problem... if you dont have the secondary air system and or the cel for it to is turned off...you will have problems...'
one way to start is a new tune... no you will probably not find out who tuned it...

 

In addition to the readiness codes on the ECU, your vehicle also has several items that will likely cause it to fail the visual inspection....the chopped airbox, the red "Y" intake, those other red tubes, the (likely) aftermarket exhaust.
You're going to need to find a friendly smog tech or do a bit of part swapping in addition to getting the ECU into a state of readiness. Either that or register the car in another state.
Anytime a California resident purchases an out-of-state vehicle, they need to make certain that it is California smog legal. Aftermarket performance parts must be CARB (California Air Resource Board) certified in order to pass the visual inspection portion of a CA smog inspection.
Beautiful car. Good luck.

 

Understand but it's been in california it's whole life
Upgrade done maybe 5 yeats ago and was smog
Trsted as recently as nov 13 . I doubt carmax switched out
The parts and switched them back

 

Anyone know a friendly smog tester in the sacramento vacaville area?

 

Was it a Carmax in your area? Maybe they could tell you where it was smogged?

 

called them. turns out it was smogged a couple months before they got it.

softtronics the tuner was extremely unhelpful. at least GAIC who tuned it when it was stock verified it was tuned by them and offered me a discount to have the upgraded tune. Based on my conversation with softtronics, I'd never do business with them.

 

I had the same issue but no with smog as mine is mildly modified. I called Vivid to verify what kind of tune it may have as it's got their black piping and diverter valves but they said they do not go by vins

You are pretty close to my neck of the woods

 

Bought a simple code reader and checked myself. Cats, o2 sensor h20sensoe and most of the parameters except the first few were n/a. Seems like the tune shut them off because I'm pretty sur an 04 has to cats.
Gaic turn according to my Porsche guy who does gaic, doesn't turn these things off.
Going to take the car to him on Thursday for a visual and see ex actual which upgrades (which Garrett turbos, etc) are on the car. If it will pass visual or he swap out some parts I'll do the new tune (1200, because it had a gaic tune prior to upgrade). If not, not sure what the next move is.

 

the first thing i would swap would be the red hoses. they will fail you if/when they open the decklid. second would be any catless exhaust. if they don't SEE the cats you can fail. the tubos wont matter and they wont know what to look for. a "tune" in and of itself isn't reason enough to fail you, only if the readiness codes ar not all "ready" unless n/applicable a like secondary 02.

 

why would the color of the hoses matter?
most of the codes are "n/a: but they are the primary codes for smog I think like cats, o2 sensor, almost everything is a n/a on that part of the code reader.
I'll have my guy check to see if the cats are there and big enough and if not, I guess swap out.
but the car had been smogged at least twice according to car fax. once then passed 5 days later, back in nov. 13. missed the window to use the prior test by a few days before I bought the car.

 

If you are in need, I can loan you my stock exhaust for a smog. Where are you taking vehicle to for inspection ?

 

because they indicate modifications to the engine compartment which suggests engine mods which might or might not be in "compliance".

you keep referencing that the car has been legal and "smogged" in ca before and i'm sure it has, these newer requirements vis a vis cars that appear to be modded or ones that are flagged with a "high emitter profile ( their term ) are now subject to this new level of scrutiny by the state and CARB/DMV, wheres they once were not.

therein lies our collective dilemma. hah. i said "collective" and referred to the state. it was a slip of the keyboard tongue herr kommisar lol